Tosin O’Callaghan

This week our Korean food fan is Tosin O’Callaghan from London UK! You might have seen her food photos on my website and my Twitter feed, she’s been posting some incredible photos recently, almost every day! She’s recently become interested in Korean cooking, which is why she’s been making so many dishes. Her passion for cooking really comes through in her photos. Let’s welcome her!

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What is your name and where do you live?
My name is Tosin, I’m from Nigeria but live in London, UK.

Tell me about the first time you ever tasted Korean food. Where were you, and what did you eat?
Believe it or not I only discovered Korean food a few weeks ago. I love food and absolutely love cooking but I never tried Korean food! There was a Korean restaurant near my parents’ home in North London with beautiful, realistic sculptures of food displayed in the window. I walked past it everyday on my way to uni but never went there!

I still haven’t been to a Korean restaurant, all the Korean food I’ve eaten, I cooked myself. The first dish I tried was Japchae from my favourite cookbook and it was the best noodle dish I’d ever tried! So it got me interested in Korean cooking but everything I saw online and in books looked so exotic and complicated with ingredients I’d never even heard of, let alone seen!

Then I discovered Maangchi’s YouTube channel and fell in love with her. Her recipes were simple and straightforward with beautiful stories behind them. The first recipe of hers that I tried was the roll ppang recipe and I was hooked! Then I did some research online for Korean groceries and found a huge grocery store (Seoul Plaza) with everything I could possibly need only a 5 minute drive from me. It was meant to be! I have cooked and cooked and cooked ever since! I still haven’t been to a Korean restaurant, but I definitely will very soon and I want to visit Korea too!

What’s your best Korean dish, the one that everybody compliments you on?
My family looooooove my Japchae and Bulgogi, they can’t get enough of it! I still have a lot to learn about Korean cooking but we’re loving all the different dishes I’ve cooked so far!